Meet the #bestclassever!

Check out the #bestclassever in these retro road trip photos of our Route #125 Cruisin' Kids. We had a few students absent today due to the long weekend, so I'll add their photos on Tuesday when we return to school. This information may also be found at any time on our "Meet the Cruisin' Kids" page. Please reference that page for class list and corresponding photos (for events like Valentine's Day list, etc.). Have a great long weekend!

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Today was a jam-packed day of learning with a few of the highlights listed and photographed below. We are hitting the ground running in all subject areas, and squeezing in a little tech "boot camp," too!

Diagonal Dice: Expanded Place Value Dice Game

Students roll and place 6 dice on a diagonal in our dice trays.Each empty spot on the dice tray represents a zero. Students write the expanded form and add the numbers. If correct, they should match the numbers written in order diagonally from top left to bottom right hand corners.

EXAMPLE: 500,000 + 20,000 + 4,000 + 300 + 50 +6 = 524, 356

How to Choose A Writing Topic

Moby and the Brainpop crew helped us learn about brainstorming and choosing topics for writing. After watching the video, we took quizzes to see what we remembered, and then emailed our scores to Mrs. Petlak.

Finally, we created "heart maps" to brainstorm things we'd love to write about.

Below is an example (not from our class) of what "heart maps" look like.

How to Choose a "just Right" book

We read a great story about choosing "just right books," reviewed the 5 finger rule, and then discussed other factors when choosing books to read at home and school. Hopefully this will influence our decisions at library check-out this Friday.

Student Reading Inventory

I want to get to know my students better as readers. Today, each student completed this only reading inventory survey to share with me their feelings and preferences about reading. I know this will help inform my instructional decisions as we progress through the school year!

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At about 2:35 today, I snuck into the bathroom of our classroom, changed out of my dress, and into some black yoga pants, a green striped exercise top, and University of Illinois flip flops. The kids were TOTALLY confused. Then....I brought out my bright orange, 5 gallon Home Depot bucket and everyone started cheering. I joined 20 other Indian Trail teachers and Mr. Keer in accepting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. See the action below!!

Mr. Keer is donating $10 for every teacher who volunteered, and we in turn challenged 3 other NSSD 112 schools to join us in spirit in action to accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!!

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You may have heard your students come home talking about #bestyearever. We say this during the day when our class is doing something AWESOME. Whether it's teamwork, problem-solving, or something funny that happens, we like to celebrate what a great class we are and great year we're going to have! Below is some inspiration as we embark on a new year of learning! Show it to your kiddos....they'll LOVE it. ENJOY, & happy weekend!!-Mrs. Petlak

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What a FUN-filled first Friday (Say that 5 times fast!) we had! From classroom routines, to social skills, strategy-based math place value games, to creative writing, students were busy 4th graders on this first full day of school! Check out some of the skills and strategies we used today. (Anything in GREEN is linked to a website for further reference.)

Setting Math Goals & Curiosities

We made our first entries into our interactive math notebooks Friday! Students listed what they already know and feel they excel at in math, as well as areas they wish to improve in and/or new skills they hope to learn this year. When we paired up with partners to share and then with the whole class, we found a lot of similarities with other students in both categories!

The General: Place Value Team Card Game

Students will be engaging in hands-on, interactive math games from Box Cars & One-Eyed Jacks all year long. In this game, teams must collect cards, do small tasks (like tapping a pencil, snapping, clapping) the number of times on each card, for 2 minutes. Once 2 minutes is up, they must arrange their cards to make the largest possible number (place value).

The numbers were HUGE, and one team figured out the MAGIC STRATEGY for BOTH collecting the most cards within the given timeframe, and instantly increasing the value of their final number. Ask your child if he/she remembers the super simple, and amazingly awesome winning strategy! You can easily play this game with your family at home, using only a deck of cards. Have fun!

The NEver-Ending Story: Team Writing

Students worked on teams to write "never-ending" stories. Each student on the team had one minute to write. Each teammate that follows has to read what was previously written, then add to the story for their minute, relating what THEY are writing to what has been already written. This is SO . MUCH . FUN. The stories the teams produced (and then presented to the entire class) were HILARIOUS, creative, and left the kids begging for more. This is a GREAT activity for you to TRY @HOME! Have your child get it started and then each person adds to the story with a different color of marker. Enjoy!

Students proudly presented their finished writing and entertained the entire class! I can't wait to read stories from these students ALL YEAR LONG!

Writing Genres Choice Centers

After warming up our writing brains with the "never-ending" story team activity, I introduced a few writing station choices to the class. Each month, a variety of prompts for narrative, opinion, explanatory, and shared research writing are available. Students also had the choice to choose a topic of their own to pursue. These are just a few of the writing choices that will regularly be available at our writing station. Students will work on activities at this station when they have finished writing projects or are at a point in the writing process where they are waiting on me to meet with them for editing/revising. It's always a class favorite!

Connect-a-Word Class Game

We "rolled" into our first vocabulary lesson with this fun, whole-class team-building game. Despite having several ways to play the game, the object is to make associations with words provided by your teammates as quickly as possible. This is another great game you can play at home with the entire family!

1) VERSION #1: The first person starts by saying a word (any word). Each time the ball is passed, the next person can say ANY word, as long as it somehow relates to the word before. Eventually, it becomes something like a game of telephone with the final word said seeming to have NOTHING to do with the original word. As long as you can justify how YOUR word SOMEHOW relates to the word directly before yours, it's valid!Example: Pie, cherry, George Washington, America, New York City, Broadway, Wicked, witch, Halloween, etc. etc.

WHY Are the Kids Sleeping?!?!

Why in the world are all of Mrs. Petlak's students SLEEPING during the school day?!?! Just kidding...they are NOT sleeping! We had a class discussion about our emotions. In that discussion, we talked about how students might feel at different times during the school year: stressed, anxious, frustrated, angry, sad, and more were all suggested by students. Then, we talked about options for strategies in our classroom when someone feels that way.

Students may participate in "Flow" activities from GoNoodle, which ask a series of questions from the student to see how they are feeling, and then lead them through a series of mental imaging and meditation exercises (about 3-5 min.) to respond accordingly. It is AMAZING. The students were SHOCKED at how awesome the experience was. We may do this whole class at various times during the year, or students may also "chill out" briefly in my office to regain control over their bodies and emotions, if need be.

Below you will see the choices for behavior, and students envisioning the balloon scene being described through our Promethean board. Afterwards, we were all relaxed and ready to learn!

Our Zen Garden

Another option if students need to chill out and regroup is to take a few minutes in my office with our Zen garden. I will provide the child with a timer, and they will have that time to relax while working with the Zen garden. After the timer goes off, the child will rejoin the class, relaxed and ready to learn.

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Creating our "KEYS" to 4th Grade Success

After brainstorming a variety of different possible "KEYS" to success during our year as 4th graders. Everything from subject skills improvement, to never giving up, to trying to make new friends were suggested. Students then wrote their OWN key to success on the back of their key cut-outs and decorated the fronts to represent our individual personalities!

After a morning full of excitement, recess, and lunch, we were a bit sleepy. It's HARD to get back into the swing of things after relaxing during summer! We energized the entire class by engaging in some GoNoodle fun! We'll be "GoNoodle-ing" all year to take quick brain breaks periodically throughout the day. Sometimes we'll participate in relaxing brain breaks such as yoga movement or mediative breathing. Other times, we need to energize with dance moves or pretending to be Olympic track runners.

Paper Ball TosS: Guess Who Game

We ended our exciting day with a guess-who, getting to know you game that used inferring skills and elimination strategies. Students wrote three clues about themselves on a piece of notebook paper and then tossed it into our bucket. Students randomly chose a paper ball from the bucket, read the clues aloud, and then tried to guess who wrote the clues using what they knew about some of their classmates and process of elimination as the game progressed. If students couldn't guess who their paper ball belonged to, they could ask a friend for help. We learned some REALLY COOL facts about each other and can't wait to keep learning more as the year progresses!

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